1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a refrigerator and, more particularly, to a refrigerator including a sub door pivotably mounted to a main door.
2. Background
A refrigerator is an apparatus in which cold air, generated via a refrigeration cycle consisting of, for example, a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, and an evaporator, is supplied into a storage compartment to keep food stored in the storage compartment at freezing or less or at a temperature slightly above freezing. A typical refrigerator internally defines storage compartments including a freezing compartment in which foods or beverages are kept frozen and a refrigerating compartment in which foods or beverages are kept cold.
Refrigerators may be divided, based on the arrangement of a freezing compartment and a refrigerating compartment. Examples of different types of refrigerators are a top mounting type refrigerator in which a freezing compartment is located above a refrigerating compartment, a bottom freezer type refrigerator in which a freezing compartment is located below a refrigerating compartment, and a side by side type refrigerator in which a freezing compartment and a refrigerating compartment are divided into left and right sides.
In recent years, large refrigerators having large storage capacities have been released. In order to efficiently utilize a receiving space, door shelves and receiving cases are provided inside a refrigerating compartment door so as to define a space to place items to be stored. A receiving case, which is a space that is provided inside a door, separately from a storage compartment, is referred to as a home bar or an auxiliary storage compartment.
In order to enable access to the auxiliary storage compartment without opening the door to open the entire refrigerating compartment, the refrigerating compartment door may be provided with an opening, and a sub door may be mounted to open or close the opening. The door to open or close the interior of the refrigerating compartment may be called a main door, and the door to open or close the auxiliary storage compartment door may be called a sub door.
The sub door may have substantially the same size as the main door, or may be smaller than the main door. The sub door may be mounted so as to be pivotable upward and downward about a horizontal axis, or may be mounted so as to be pivotable leftward or rightward about a vertical axis.
A user may access the auxiliary storage compartment through an opening formed in the main door by opening only the sub door, thereby introducing or retrieving beverages or foods into or from the auxiliary storage compartment. However, since the refrigerator has no structure capable of supporting, for example, foods when the user opens the sub door and retrieves beverages or foods, the user must inconveniently move the retrieved foods to another place such as, for example, a table or a sink.